National Jobs Bank is meaningless?

It states that “But do senior HR practitioners here believe the Jobs Bank will make a difference?

One regional HR lead believes the Jobs Bank will not “have a meaningful impact”.

“It’s government lip service,” said the senior HR professional, who did not want to be named. “It’s not going to have a meaningful impact on anyone as long as the only requirement is to post it for two weeks. The only impact that Singapore can have are the approvals of the EPs.”

In this connection – without the disclosure of the statistics on how many of the jobs actually went to Singaporeans – it may be quite meaningless?

As to “He adds local companies aren’t hiring foreigners because they are racist against Singaporeans. Rather, it’s either because the foreign talent is more affordable or more effective” – employers save up to 17 per cent of salaries because they do not need to make CPF contributions for foreign workers.

With regard to “more effective” – when practically anyone in the world can come as tourists to look for a job and stay when they find one – you may be getting more experienced and more qualified foreigners who may be willing to work for lower pay.

In respect of “For us, it’s the latter, but we have fortunately been about to hire mostly Singaporeans or PRs (permanent residents)” – PRs are not Singaporeans.

As to “Other HR leaders believe there is a bigger value in the Jobs Bank.

“It’s important to not look at the Jobs Bank as a one-off solution. It is a very useful source of real-time data that can be used for many things,” an HR director from the technology sector said.

“With the data, we can get a very good sense of the demand, the mismatch within the labour market and how we can address it. We will also be able to see where are the jobs that Singaporeans don’t want to fill” – since the National Jobs Banks gives out hardly any data – it may also be quite meaningless too.

About the Author

Leong Sze Hian has served as president of 4 professional bodies, honorary consul of 2 countries, an alumnus of Harvard University, authored 4 books, quoted over 1500 times in the media , has been a radio talkshow host, a newspaper daily columnist, Wharton Fellow, SEACeM Fellow, columnist for theonlinecitizen and Malaysiakini, executive producer of Ilo Ilo (40 international awards), invited to speak more than 200 times in over 30 countries, CIFA advisory board member, founding advisor to the Financial Planning Associations of Indonesia and Brunei. He has 3 Masters, 2 Bachelors degrees and 13 professional qualifications.